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Accurate data is key for Ottawa to best support cities with growing needs for migrants

By Adam VaughanOpinion

Wed., July 4, 2018

The City of Toronto has been doing incredible work and carrying a heavy load as Canada deals with an increase of migrants seeking asylum. The federal government knows that municipalities cannot and should not do it alone.

It’s why in response to a call from Mayor Tory and other municipal leaders, Ottawa pledged an initial $50 million to help with temporary housing. We also renewed our pledge to work with all levels of government on a plan to manage and mitigate pressures.

An RCMP officer informs a migrant couple of the location of a legal border station, shortly before they illegally crossed from Champlain, N.Y., to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec. (Charles Krupa / AP)

As a result, federal and provincial officials have developed a plan to triage asylum claimants from the point of entry to locations with temporary housing capacity. With federal funds and support, the goal is to have the Ontario government map its existing shelter system inventory and identify capacity in real time.

The federal intake system would then process and triage migrants to areas of the province that can accommodate them. Once again, this would be done with federal support, as property tax payers should not be covering these costs.

A similar system is working well in Quebec. Temporary housing occupancy has stayed below 85 per cent of capacity across the province and there’s a well-managed process in place to ensure that service-providers are not overwhelmed. A coordinated approach between federal agencies and provincial officials has been crucial to ensuring order and managing flows effectively.

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Furthermore, quality data has allowed us to quickly respond to changes on the ground and make adjustments when needed. Last year, Quebec indicated that migrants were staying in shelters too long, because they were not receiving work authorization quickly enough. In response, the federal government cut wait times for work permits from three months to three weeks, and the duration of stay in emergency shelters has been cut significantly.

The Star editorial (governments must act now to head off backlash against migrants, June 27) says we need to stop hiding behind data. To be clear, we do not dispute that an increasing proportion of shelter users are migrants. We are committed to supporting the city, and accurate data is key for us to figure how to best do that. We know that the terms “refugee,” “refugee claimant” and “immigrant” are often conflated, however, each of these categories of migrants are supported through different mechanisms. For example, people who already have refugee status have access to a number of federally funded programs, which can relieve the burden on city services. This year, the federal government invested $1.1 billion in settlement and integration supports for refugees and immigrants. Without accurate data clients cannot be directed towards those services. This is not about semantics, this is about finding the right solutions based on an accurate understanding of the problem.

Ottawa wants to recreate our process in Quebec in Ontario. This will mean reduced pressures on Toronto, as well as other municipalities that have seen increased pressures, including London and Hamilton and Ottawa. In the past two months, there has been a significant decrease in the number of asylum seekers crossing our border, and we want to make sure that this reduction provides relief to Toronto’s shelter system.

Toronto has struggled with finding adequate shelter space for over a decade. I left Toronto city council and sought a seat as a member of parliament in Ottawa to address this challenge by bringing the federal government back to the housing field after a decade of severe cuts and 25 years of underfunding.

Since 2015, the federal government has doubled support for homelessness in its first budget, tripled transfers to the provinces and has now launched Canada’s first National Housing Strategy, with a $40 billion, 10-year investment. Each level of government has a role to play. The federal government is ready to go with funding and a triage plan to help Toronto with the recent pressures.

The increase in irregular migrants is not a crisis: Canadian laws are being enforced, human rights are being respected and our international obligations and treaties are being lived up to. Cities are not being left to fend for themselves and neither are people seeking refuge.

However, extraordinary situations require additional cooperation, and it is important that all levels of government come together to find solutions. As the new provincial government is sworn in, we look forward to working with our counterparts to give Toronto the support it needs.

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